4 Tips to Lead Confidently!

In the last decade of my coaching career, I have seen countless professionals who are extremely competent but struggling to cut through at leadership positions because they are softly spoken, or their self-confidence is low. Leaders are just like any other professional and their confidence may waiver from time to time. Self-confidence is that one Leadership Quality that leaders must have! Without it, they are not going to be seen as very credible or their decisions will be questioned not only by others or by themselves.

For example, one former client of mine was so averse to making commitments that he would not give a straight answer without a qualifier. Every attempt to conclude on his decisions was answered like "well, maybe but I am not really sure". It wasn't a lack of communication or passion that held him back. It was his lack of confidence to commit to his decisions and goals.

So, how can a leader build self-confidence? Though it does take conscious and continuous effort, building your self-confidence as a leader can be done. In this article, I will give the best tips on building your confidence in the realm of leadership.

Use the following tips to help you learn how to lead confidently.

• Learn about Leadership

Take a course, learn tips, read a few books and study the great leaders. Learn what style, what framework or what form to use and when? For example, Leaders know that there is no one style that fits all, it has to be situational. There are times when you must inspire your team so you need to wear your inspirational hat but there are circumstances when you would want to lead in a transformational, or progressive style. They align their style with, the need of the team and the need of every individual, task, type of task or nature of the group. So, the very first tip is to learn the various leadership styles and train yourself on tools to use them as per situations.

• Network with other Leaders

One of the most important things you can do to lead confidently is to build your network and get support from them. It will give you the knowledge that “I’m not the only one who feels this way.” While it’s good to learn about leadership from courses and reading, however, putting those ideas into practice is hard and you might make some mistakes through your journey. First of all, remember this it's ok to make mistakes and having a network or support group of peers is a healthy way to share a common goal in a real-world of challenges.

• Take regular feedback and develop self-awareness

Sometimes we don't see ourselves the way our team look at us. Our strengths and weakness may have different meanings from a different lens. So, take regular feedback, this will give a leader realistic self-awareness. Moreover, leaders who ask for feedback are seen as more confident than those who don’t. They develop a healthy and transparent relationship with their team. So, here are two things one is knowing your leadership strengths will give you confidence and second facing up to your development needs will help you determine what you need to focus on to get better.

• Project confidence

While you may be terrified inside, learn to “fake it till you make it” by appearing confident. Confidence is something you develop over a period of time and it’s a journey and process. It won't happen overnight, you fail 99 times to get up 100th time, practice, practice and practice, keep practising till you get the success. Terrified of public speaking? Take a public speaking course, record your speaking style. Terrified of decision making? improvise your decision-making skills and work to Improve your Leadership Skills.

Always remember when you are acting as a Leader, you might feel challenges or come across some setbacks and at that time it's normal to have your confidence shaken up, the important thing to know is that you can acknowledge your feelings of lack of confidence and choose to work past them.

Take these ideas and breathe new confidence into your leadership style. Let me know in the comments, what do you think about it? or you can share your thoughts at anjulisharma.com

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